Company

FutureSentry is manufactured by Communicated Enforcement, LLC, a private company formed in 2007 to expand product development and market reach of automated crime prevention systems.

In the 1980s, a team of former law enforcement and intelligence officers began preventing crime for businesses unable to post around-the-clock human guards. They saved their clients millions of dollars by marrying the best communication technology of the day with expertise in criminal behavior.

That complex, state-of-the-art interactive technology has evolved into a simple device — the FutureSentry robotic guard — that prevents crime better than any other security option.

By scaring off robbers in more than 1,000 convenience stores nationwide, FutureSentry?s designers proved that technology can prevent crime when it makes criminals believe they are in danger. The early systems featured two-way audio/video feeds between stores and a Central Monitoring Facility. When triggered, security monitoring personnel (they exclusively used off-duty police officers) addressed the intruders and watched their every move. In more than 90% of incidents, the subject quickly ran away.

Those implementations enhanced the profitability of the clients and the safety of employees and customers. The work also provided an abundance of data on how would-be criminals respond before, during and after they act. With few exceptions, incident records revealed that criminals are easily distracted and deterred by unfamiliar stimuli, and rarely show resolve when the risk of capture presents itself. The records also confirmed that criminals are accustomed to and comfortable around typical surveillance and alarm technology.

Based this knowledge, as well as his experience as a law enforcement officer, Stephen Whitten focused on engineering an artificial intelligence that could perform the primary functions of a human sentinel. To be effective, it would have to do more than identify and warn like traditional security technology. To be significantly different from any other commercial product — to prevent crime rather than just recording or announcing it — his device had to act unpredictably and get involved with suspicious people before they come close to compromising a facility.

In 2007, Whitten’s invention was ready for field testing and the artificial intelligence was granted US Patent #7327253. During the next two years, prototype FutureSentry robotic guards were installed in more than 200 locations including schools. apartment buildings, automobile dealerships, construction sites, prisons and luxury estates. Crime was reduced by more than 90% in previously high-risk areas.

In 2009, Whitten joined with Jaak E. Rannik. They formed Communicated Enforcement, LLC to engineer refinements to the technology, increase production capacity and distribute FutureSentry world wide. The company is headquartered in Miami, FL. FutureSentry is manufactured in Shenandoah, VA.